Russian Who (and Beatles) two-fer CDs -- sound quality?

While at a legit record store yesterday, I came across some Russian (at least that's what I guessed by trying to decypher the letters/symbols on the bottom of the back cover) Who two-fer CDs -- one that I can remember for sure was "My Generation / The Who Sell Out."

If my (faulty) memory serves, there may have also been some Beatles two-fers as well.

Anyone familiar with these? Know how these sound? Mono or stereo? Legit or bootleg?

Thanks.

 

I bought a Russian Beatles 65/Yesterday & Today two-fer, it appeared to be a dub of the commerical EMI tracks from CD (same mono/stereo choices) - mastering volume was quite low IIRC (I only played it once)

JohnnyH

 

I have Please Please Me/With the Beatles, all mono despite saying stereo on the original cover art. Sounds like the original releases to me. I also have the first (UK) Stones album, with about eight bonus tracks (Not Fade Away alternate, other outtakes, 1963 tracks) - sounds fine to me. The only lo-fi track is the Stones demo for, IIRC, George Bean "It Must Be You". Please correct title if wrong. Again, all mono with one bonus track sounding reprocessed.

 

Those Russian two fers (of all those artists) are without question, definitely pirates, illegal, fake, and nothing but dubs of the "real" CDs. Avoid them.

 

They're almost always pirates, and almost always dubs of commercially-available discs, often done fairly poorly (i.e. missing tracks, static, etc.). Unless there's a particularly curious one--for example, there's an Argent two-fer that's "Nexus" and "Circus"--it's probably best to leave well enough alone.

-D

 

While the Dark Horse CDs were out of print I bought 2 Harrison Russian 2fers: 1 was Dark Horse/33 1/3 and the other was George Harrison/Somewhere in England. I threw them in the trash as soon as the box set came out. Terrible sound on both.

 

As a person who works in russian music industry I definitely can confirm that all these releases are pirate. However recently some russian companies went the japanese way and started to license their releases from western labels. This mostly applies to independent metal labels like SPV etc. They started releasing their own legitimate CDs with slightly different packaging which is sometimes even superior to the usual western release. Some of them even have special exclusive bonus tracks! They all look and sound great. I personally love special russian editions of the latest Ken Hensley and Glenn Hughes releases. Recently I even saw a few CDs with russian OBIs (!!!). So there may come a day when russian version may become as cool and collectible as japanese.

 

Really? If that's the CD Maximum series, those're clones of the stock discs.

 

With the huge proliferation of pirated Russian discs I politely decline to buy any Russian made CDs whether licensed or not, because I'm not sure what I'm getting (or maybe I AM sure what I'm getting).

 

Thanks for the info, folks!

 

It's pretty simple. Just look at the packaging. If it looks identical to the western release in terms of quaity of the booklet ect. then it's legimate. Pirates never bother with quality packaging, that's why their CDs cost $3! I'll give an overview of the "licensed discs" record labels as soon as I study the topic in depth!

 

Dunno, Anton. I have a few King Crimson pirates that're essentially indistinguishable from the real thing.

 

The Russian 2 fers CD's are not a bad way to get the younger or newer person to purchase The Beatles to get a start to listen to thier music. Correct version or not, very cheaply and they don't sound all that bad.

 

I broke down and bought a Traveling Wilbury's Russian 2-fer -- Volumes 1/3. Sound quality seems fine to me. Like someone said, it's likely just a dub of the real CD.

 

Ehh. I wouldn't encourage it.

Re. Daveman, yep, that's how I have the Wilburys catalogue. My two-fer's from an earlier batch, though (there're several different companies that make these things...for example, see the attached picture below from one of the earlier, 1990s Harrison twofers and dig the artwork alteration), and mine has Nobody's Child as a bonus track.

 

David! King Crimson and other old major acts on russian CDs are sure to be pirates! Probably because the licensing from major labels is too expensive. That's why this new trend of releasing "russian editions" applies ONLY to new releases from independent record labels, mostly metal and neo-prog! So be sure that if you see any Beatles, Stones etc. it's 100% pirate and must be avoided (unless it's an unreleased or ultrarare recording)

 

Well, I didn't know they were pirates when I bought 'em (I was later tipped off by the obvious lack of UPC code on the back). These're more properly termed "counterfeits," as they're obviously trying to mimic the original releases. Paperstock is good, disc art is present...a fairly decent attempt.

 

I saw a few of the Beatles discs at a shop in Toronto a few years back and didn't bother with them. I never saw any more of these in shops until I was in Newcastle on a trip to the UK last summer. I saw a ton of different releases from mainly prog bands (Gentle Giant etc...) all in one shop.

Cheers,
Chris

 

The funny things is what happens to the foreigners at "Gorbushka" - Moscow's famous record market. They go totally crazy (fancy a twoofer for $3?) and walk away with entire music collections!

 

I have the Please Please Me/With the Beatles as well. Sounds good to me.

 

Ehhh Dave, don't be so encourging now. Even though the good artwork is as well as some nice added bonus cuts on them sourced from hard to find well known bootlegs out there.